I'm sure I'll get a Google AdSense "Dear Publisher" letter informing me of "recent activity related to violations found on specific pages of [my] websites" because I've got the word "shit" in a post title. But Oprah said it. Oprah said it. And I'm in my 60s and I am taking no shit.

I got offered that shit — but didn't take it — when I blogged about "shithole." But the President of the United States said it. The President of the fucking United States. Or so I'd heard.

132 comments:

If you don’t actually exercise freedom of speech, it atrophies. Back in the 1990s, I was sure that “nigger”, “cunt”, and “cocksucker” were the three most shocking words in the English language, at least among whites people. Who the hell knows today?

That’s when they couldn’t say “Brick shithouse” which is, of course a shit house that is built to the highest specifications. “Built like a brick shithouse” was a common phrase used by my peers to describe a woman at a time when I was too young to understand what it meant.

I was talking with my 7-year-old yesterday about bad words, and apparently "shit" is the most interesting bad word to first graders. "All my friends talk about the s-h-word," she said. She was almost disappointed to learn that it was just another way to say poop.

It bothers me far more the casual way the names of deity ("Jesus" "OMG" etc) are thrown around by people, including young children.

Okay, take no shit is the watchword for our sixties and Plus; but, what about giving shit back when it should be given?

For example, the Polish Government has now made it illegal to link Poles with the Nazi death camps built in THEIR fucking country during WWII. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5079236,00.html

Aside from being a very bad Polish joke, I think this is a situation where boatloads of shit need to be sent overseas?

You take no shit. None. Not a bit. When you're a millionaire you want to say you take no shit, but you still do.When you're a billionaire you take none. There’s both a quickening and a calming — there’s a sense that you have more money than anyone on earth. For me, there’s also a sense of calming about that.

Maybe getting so old that you crow about how you just don't have to take anyone's shit anymore is just a bunch of bullshit, a delusional pretense that moving ever closer to that moment when you shuffle off this mortal coil for good is something to be celebrated. Look! I'm old so now I'm free to be left alone and not take any shit. No! Rage rage against the dying of the light. Bring on that shit, I can take as much as you want to shovel at me, I can take it because I refuse to be old and I am going to live forever.

Wow. One of the nicest things about my (almost) turning 60 is that I feel I have grown over the years to be less fussed about stuff. Over the years I think I've learned that very few things really matter in the long term, and mostly to ignore not getting what I want on the rest.This is really important when your health gradually turns against you in your older years.And here is someone who says that she is _more_ uptight at 60 than at 40? Pathetic. Sad!Good thing she's a billionaire, or she'd be finding out real quick what happens to obnoxious old people. My wife and daughter work in nursing homes, and they have stories about how critically important it is that the people there like you. Life and death.

It's true Oprah don't take no shit....I can just picture the Weight Watcher advertising team saying "I like my job so I ain't telling Oprah it's ridiculous to use her fat ass in a weight loss commercial. So you are gonna have to tell her....... Hell, I ain't telling her either - let's just shoot the dumb commercial as is...guess we need to unpack the wide angle lenses".

Did the President really say it, Althouse? Or was it a "smear" as you called it?

My issue all along is what your own unspoken issue is now; we just don't know. Because nobody from the White House would supply an honest answer to the simple question of what did the President say.

Everyone is tired of taking your Aspergery shit, Chuck, and your nonstop obsession with what Althouse does or does not say. I don't know who you think you are to be constantly trying to dictate to her. If I were her I'd be wary of you. Are you going to show up in her front yard one of these days to talk some sense into her? Fuck off.

It’s funny because if the device of assuming that there are rules that define when one must listen to a commenter, like Roberts Rules of Order, or something, adds an amusing ironic twist due to its very ridiculousness.

"I am uncomfortable with this unseemly piling on against Chuck. Chuck has been an unusually loyal and steadfast commenter on the Althouse blog. Attention must be paid."

Well, look at the questions he saw fit to ask me. To answer them would be to take shit. That's an opinion I formed without reference to anything anyone else is saying.

There's a certain style of commenting around here that provokes back and forth with the commenter's name constantly getting repeated. The people who do it KNOW I have asked them to stop. It's their methodology and they mean to do it despite civil explanations about why it is a problem. It does not equate with being "loyal and steadfast."

By the way, I thought "loyal" was bad. I was watching CNN last night...

He can be funny when he is not a talking point transcriptionist. He also has a little bit of an Andy Kaufman thing going on. Is he serious? Is he joking? I can imagine him cutting and pasting the Great Gatsby into a thread.

There's a certain style of commenting around here that provokes back and forth with the commenter's name constantly getting repeated. The people who do it KNOW I have asked them to stop. It's their methodology and they mean to do it despite civil explanations about why it is a problem. It does not equate with being "loyal and steadfast."

I never get into the Chuckfests for this reason (a. it's boring and b. the boss says please don't do it) but I broke my rule this morning because it was just so damned absurd.

And I'm serious about the unhealthy level of concern with what Althouse does/says, especially since from his own comments there is also email traffic that goes on in addition to the commenting. Boss lady, I know you've been doing this a long time and you're experienced in dealing with weirdos, and I don't mean to tell you your bidness, but his behavior seems like the kind of thing that could veer into dangerous. Just be careful.

" My wife and daughter work in nursing homes, and they have stories about how critically important it is that the people there like you. Life and death."

Yes, that's what I meant. Rusty, guess what? If you are in the VA or a nursing home and you don't like their attitude and you won't take their shit, the staff might just decide they won't take yours - literally. They'll leave you lying in it. Or they won't bring you your pain meds.

“If someone is above you authority-wise, you still take shit. But it's a lot lot harder not to be caught rolling your eyes when it happens.”

I rolled my eyes when I was younger. Now I just say, in a spirit of helpful and productive cooperation, exactly why I think it’s not such a great idea. I’ve reached that point in my career where I’m older than many of my work peers and I’m enjoying that, as it allows me to stand free of their agitations and competitions. Look, if you really are wiser for being older, you’ll soon find that younger people will seek your opinions and advice. If growing older is merely turning you into a difficult curmudgeonly asshole, they’ll avoid you like the plague. People, of any age, who loudly proclaim that they’ll take no shit, usually receive no love either.

Hmm. I asked two questions, comprising less than 20 words. No insults. Nothing like calling Althouse a "Cuck" or a "Lifelong Republican" (she isn't, of course) or a "titty twister," with the false accusation that she had actually threatened someone with "titty twisting." I didn't ridicule her as "Former Obama Supporter Althouse" or accuse her of accepting troll money from Dnipro, or anything like that.

I asked two straight-up questions stemming directly from her last paragraph to this post, and incorporating another of her recent posts in which she did call it a "smear" to have referred to Trump's saying "shithole countries."

Two quotes come to mind. One from a peer who, having been caught in the act of making hilarious fun of our boss, commented, "I think he's secure enough to distinguish between good-natured shit-giving and actual disrespect."

The other is from Michael Gambon near the end of Layer Cake:

"You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake son."

Oprah is wrong. Life is a multistory outhouse. No matter where you are, you're going to get shat on. Just look at Trump. He's old, a billionaire and President Of The United States and he gets shat on 24/7. To be sure, he seeks out the shit and dishes it out as well but all the same he gets shat upon despite his age, wealth and position. No, what Oprah has is called FU money and an age where you no longer need to care what most people think but even that level of raincoat can't keep you completely shit free.

Well the Prof is right. Chuck thinks he is extremely clever and somehow he thinks he is above the rest. One thing I cannot understand is how so many take notice of his comments and answer. That is what he is living for. I would like him to analyse all the answers and stop claiming that he voted for your President because being clever does not necessarily means being intelligent. I must admit when I read the comments in any of the threads if he is not present I feel disappointed.

Someone who is tortured by the the thought that he’ll never know exactly whether the President said “shithole” or “shithouse” in a private conversation behind closed doors is spending too much brainpower pondering the irrelevant and unknowable. This is truly trivial shit, and worse than all that it relies on one of the slimiest creatures to troll the swamp, Dick Durbin. Get over it Man. That was not a pivotal moment in time only in your mind.

As someone else said up-thread: It is easier to not take the crap that other people are dishing out when you are a powerful wealthy celebrity.

It really doesn't have that much to do with age as it has to do with your status. A person who is eking out a living by cleaning your house, mowing your lawn, serving you food at McDonalds......they have to take the crap. Oprah not so much.

I asked two straight-up questions stemming directly from her last paragraph to this post, and incorporating another of her recent posts in which she did call it a "smear" to have referred to Trump's saying "shithole countries."

What you don't grasp is that you don't have the right to interrogate her, and you don't have the right to demand that she explain herself to you. This is what makes you a creep, dude.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...I asked two straight-up questions stemming directly from her last paragraph to this post, and incorporating another of her recent posts in which she did call it a "smear" to have referred to Trump's saying "shithole countries."

What you don't grasp is that you don't have the right to interrogate her, and you don't have the right to demand that she explain herself to you. This is what makes you a creep, dude.

Why in the world is it a problem calling someone a lifelong republican when that someone claimed that label for themselves?

It's really quite telling that LLR Chuck, after SELF-IDENTIFYING as a LLR is now quite put out about being labeled a lifelong republican and even going so far as to include that term in a list of "insults".

I mean, I know how in the dumps LLR Chuck happens to be after the visual and rhetorical and Generic Ballot shellacking his democrat operational allies have taken in the last week, so its understandable that he is in a "shed my own skin" sort of a mood.

ARM: "I am uncomfortable with this unseemly piling on against Chuck. Chuck has been an unusually loyal and steadfast commenter on the Althouse blog. Attention must be paid."

I find it disturbing that after ARM goes to all the trouble of assuming the "Proper Althouse Blog Comment Monitor" duties, albeit in a volunteer status, that he is forced to perform these necessary and probably almost UN-mandated duties without the proper accoutrements: Specifically an ARMBAND.

You can't be a Proper Monitor without an ARMBAND denoting your new-found authority.

I recommend Althouse commission a study and solicit input as to the colors and logos for such an armband.

We already have many examples of potentially appropriate designs from the 1920's Soviet Union, 1930's from you-know-where, and the 1960's from Tom Friedman approved China.

"You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake son." "

An underrated and underviewed movie. My favorite Daniel Craig role and also includes favorite actor Tom Hardy. A good lesson for people who think they are smarter than most.

Immediate thought: I suppose this quote is a good example of the who said it thing. Would it be read the same if the quote had come from someone else? Say....Second thought: Similar to others upthread. It brought to my mind the two quotes of Tiberius (or Caligula? - via R Graves book, so maybe not entirely accurate?) which has more to do with describing the character of certain people who unlimited power and money: "let them fear me, as long as they obey" and then later "let them hate me, so long as they fear" (This "not taking shit from" comes close to inspiring "fear" in others, if human courtesy and respect are already off your table)Third thought, built on second: Would Oprah nod politely if the interviewer asked whether sometimes a 62 year old sales clerk might still have to "take shit" from a billionnaire having a bad day at the hat store because a who-knows-what-exactly miscommunications thing got blown up into a worldwide media item?Because that sales clerk - being 62 - might have learned from her lifetime of taking shit experiences that some fights you aint gonna win. Dont matter about being (possibly) "right" - theres many reasons why the shit keeps coming down on you. Its called reality. In this life, it's a hard shit thats a gonna fall. Well, unless you think everyone is like you and is a billionnaire. Check your priv... oh, hell, nevermind. Different rules apply I guess, for some.

Final thought: Thanks for spreading this none-shall-shit-upon-me-no-longer idealism, Oprah! Personally, I cant WAIT to live in a world filled with lots of Boomers thinking that they "put in their time of taking shit" and now they dont need to take any more of that. Cause 60!!

Or may I presume these new terms of societal interaction of no-shit-be-ataking" are non-age or wealth or race or gender specific? Cause Yey Yey to that idea: who doesnt WANT a world with harder social lines drawn, based on personally determined shit-taking, than is already found today?

Mostly true. The idea that men are prepared to settle arguments with their fists is a bit optimistic. Perhaps Peterson is being kind or is showing that he's Canadian.Men are more confrontational while women are more flexible to maintain relationships.

"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." -- Gen. Mattis

Please pardon me for shouting, but ... WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WRONG WITH CALLING A SHITHOLE A SHITHOLE???

Is it any worse to use the word "shithole" in private negotiations than for Democrat politicians like Kirsten Gillibrand* to say "fuck" repeatedly in a public politcal speech? Or Barack Obama to give barely-disguised middle finger salutes to his political opponents in public? Sorry, but Little Dick Durbin and people who want to join Little Dick Durbin in their fake sense of being affronted can go sod off.__________________* No doubt Gillibrand was trying to demonstrate her female privilege.

I can't find the video clip but I once saw a female professor screaming at the person videotaping her that he was exercising his male privilege and he needed to stop it RIGHT NOW. And I thought to myself that if a man screamed at me that way in public I would feel obliged to hit him in the face, ergo she was exercising her female privilege.

Is that a threat of censorship from Google? Really?!? What little dork has been looking over your shoulder? I particularly like the lack of specificity about your alleged misdeeds. Since I use adblocker I am not aware of actions, if any, taken against your site. Being the independent cuss that I am I would be very tempted to tell big brother Google to FO.

I think Las Vegas, Nevada is a Shithole. I think I pick-up on the desperation vibes more than the good times vibes. I know several people who agree with me and several that don't. I'd still go to Vegas for the right reasons - good company, a special show, etc. But there are many many other places I'd rather go.

That said, I'd take Vegas over Haiti. There are shitholes and then there are SHITHOLES.

Speaking of shit, when I was stationed at Clark AB, we got this Chief in who went on a rampage over 'unauthorized' headgear. Long story short, I submitted a joke suggestion to my boss that a Special Hat Investigation Team be formed and that the Chief should lead it. Of course, so folks knew who he was, he should have a distinctive hat with his title on it -SHIT Head. My boss stripped out my name and gave it to the Wing Commander who Routed it to the PACAF CC who sent it to the Chief. I'm told the Chief did not appreciate it.

The owner of a small outhouse cleaning company goes to a job with his three employees. The pumper is broken so they have to remove the shit by buckets. One crawls down in the hole and fills a bucket and hands it up to the next guy standing halfway up the ladder who takes it and passes it up to the next guy waiting above the toilet seat. Then that guy takes it and hands the bucket full of shit to a guy who takes it and dumps it in the truck. Can you tell who the owner of the company is? He's the guy at the bottom of the hole. He's not taking any shit from anybody.

"I think it's kind of like If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all.

If I didn't take shit, I wouldn't get no gifts at all."

The older I get the number of people I have to shit from diminishes. Mostly because I don't have patience for that shit. That includes cops and bosses and just about anybody who wastes my time.Except my wife. Her I'll take shit from.

Big Mike said...Please pardon me for shouting, but ... WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WRONG WITH CALLING A SHITHOLE A SHITHOLE???

I pardoned. No problem. I wouldn't shout it, but I think it is the right question. But more accurately, what is the problem with Trump admitting that he said it?

People like you believe he really did say it, and that it was essentially the right thing to say. That Trump said it, and that the only wrongdoing was the later leak of a comment that was made in a private meeting.

But Trump won't admit it. And White House Communications seem to have gone to extraordinary lengths to deny it. So extraordinary, they apparently got Sen. Tom Cotton to lie about it. Or almost lie about it. The "almost" part being that Cotton didn't actually 100% deny that Trump said it.

I don't get it, and I don't like it. I want a straight answer. Is it something for TrumpWorld to celebrate (THEN OWN IT!), or is it a false allegation (with unfortunately very credible support)?

Late yesterday I shared the story about the guy in the bar with the Trump obsession. He's here again today, but now there's a twist. I see the local freeloader off to one side watching the usual back and forth including our bored bouncer looking up from her tablet and half heartedly trying to break things up. Suddenly, the freeloader's accross the room, throws his Arm around the guy, and shouts "Leave my buddy alone, he's as much a regular as any you other guys!" Now there's two of them. Geez, some will do anything for a free drink.

Thanks for the advice, but I don't have any problems with Adblockplus except for the apparent fact that it is misleading me about how many ads it is actually blocking.

I'm open to the possibility that certain persons have planted subliminal anti-Trump advertisements all over Althouse and it is blocking those. I do find Melania to be even better looking when it's running.

Althouse blocked for “adult and pornography” at work again, as of this morning. Hope that shit was worth it! Fortunately for you people I rarely have anything nice to say anyway, especially between the hours of 9 and 5 EST. Ha ha!

You're dealing with a Google robot with simple rules, like does "shit" appear or not. Not an actual person, not that a person is guaranteed to be smarter, because they can get in robot trouble themselves.